This is a long blog post. We did so much!
We caught the ferry from Kasos to Karpathos, another island we had visited three years earlier. This time, instead of staying in Pigadia, the busy main port town, to start with we stayed above a lovely beach we found last time, on the western side of the island.
Finiki is gorgeous. A small cluster of whitewashed buildings surround a small harbour and beach. A few restaurants line the beach and a classic Greek church overlooks the whole scene. It's stunning!
Even better, the accommodation we had booked turned out to be amazing! It was spacious, new, comfortable and good value. And it looked right over the beach and village. It was by the far the best accommodation we have stayed in on this trip so far.
The view from our apartment:
We quickly fell into a routine. We would walk each morning. In the afternoons we would get our washing done (there was a washing machine in our unit and we were sweating a lot on these walks!) and catch up with things. We would then swim in the cool (but slowly getting warmer) sea. After a shower we'd meander down to Marina's restaurant and eat wonderful food opposite the beach. You can't get much better than that.
Marina was a real character. We met her on our last trip and it was wonderful to see that nothing had changed in that time.
Marina's specialty was seafood and, whenever she had a lot of scraps, she would walk onto the small road and bang a tin and cats would come running from everywhere. They were mostly desexed and were all very tame. There was clearly a pecking order when it came to meal times though.
The little town and bay even looked beautiful at night.
Our first walk was our toughest one by far. John had heard that you can walk to the top of the highest mountain on the island. Once he knew that, he simply had to do it. We drove to the starting point and slogged straight up the side of a huge, steep hill for two hours.
There weren't many views on the way up but there were plenty at the top. The views to the north part of the island were amazing. Small puffs of clouds seemed to perch on each mountain top.
We got talking to a lovely young Belgian couple at the top and spent nearly half an hour there, just chatting and recovering. They took a photo for us.
We returned via the same route so both the uphill and the downhill muscles got a good workout. We had more views on the way down.
These prickly, Dr Seuss-like plants were everywhere.
At the end of the walk sat an unobtrusive taverna. We had one of my yummiest meals at this obscure place. Gigantes, giant beans cooked in a tomato sauce, were on the menu, something we hadn't seen yet on this trip. They were sensational, as was John's Karpathos sausage spetsofai (stew). Nom, nom, nom. As Michael Hutchence sang, "Spetsofai me."
Another lovely walk began at the base of a peninsula at the nearby village of Arkasa.
Ancient steps led us up to the top. I think they were marble.
An acropolis once stood at the top. Now all that was left were a few columns and rubble.
The old columns were half buried and they looked out over the village of Arkasa.
There was also once an old castle too but there were only a few walls there now.
Marina, the owner of 'our' restaurant, was from Arkasa and she told us not to miss the old church at the bottom of the headland. She said something about a hollow or a floor that we didn't quite understand. What we found was incredible - a huge mosaic lay partly exposed and partly under grass and soil. The church that this was originally the floor of must have been massive to have had a floor that large.
There were random columns and pieces of carved marble just lying around. This mosaic section was separate to the rest and was in the best condition.
An old church stood at one end.
Inside, it protected a section of the much older mosaic floor.
A second church sat at the other end of the mosaic floor and inside was an old baptism font that had been carved from a much older massive marble column base. The plastic just adds to the atmosphere don't you think? Not! We later learned that this font had been stolen three times. Each time, it was loaded onto a ship which then sunk and, each time, it then somehow washed up back on the small beach in front of the church. Obviously miracles are alive and well in Arkasa!
The nearby beach was popular.
Apparently there were huge winds over winter that eroded a lot of sand from local beaches, including this one. John and I laughed at the sight of the fallen-down lifesaver's stand (we didn't even know they had these in Greece!) until we remembered that a tourist drowned here a few days earlier....
We wandered around the old part of town and were pleasantly surprised by the beautifully maintained houses and gardens. We later learned that many people from here migrated to Australia and the US. Many later returned and built nice houses with their new-found wealth.
We somehow got chatting to an American/Canadian couple in a mini-market. He was born in this village and had been baptised in the marble font we saw earlier! He moved to Canada when he was six. We talked for a while then found ourselves invited back to their house! They had bought the house sight unseen and, unlike other expats we've spoken to, got some great guys to renovate it for them. It was cool, modern and had the most amazing views from the covered rooftop.
Their next door neighbour offered to show us his traditional house. We've only seen this style in Olympos before, which is further north on the same island. Traditionally, all the family lived in one large room and slept in the beds behind carved wooden framework (the framework is covered in lace in this photo). The framework was very decorative but we don't like sleeping in these beds as you have to crawl in and out of them. The family no longer live in this room. It's just for show.
From the outside, it just looked like any other ordinary house, albeit a very well-kept one.
Right next door to our new friends' house was a huge church. And yes, the bells rang right beside them, however it was only once a week and on special occasions.
There was a beautiful door on the church.
The bell tower was huge!
We then invited our friends to dinner at our village and we had a lively night.We chose the lovely mountain village of Othos to begin our next day's walk. There were a lot of small vineyards in this area, even at the church!
We hadn't gone far when a beaten-up ute pulled up beside us. Without so much as a "good morning", the old guy driving it launched straight into the conversation. "Where are you going? What are you doing?" all in quite good English. Once we told him we were hiking and he checked that we knew where we were going, he wanted to hear no more about us. It was time for him to talk about himself, as Greeks are wont to do. He had a small farm nearby. He grew grapes among other things. He didn't know the names of the grape varieties, only that they were very old Karpathian grapes.
But it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying as he had the most amazing nose. It was hugely bulbous, starting at the bridge of his nose and continuing down to the massive tip which extended to within half a centimetre of his upper lip. It was broad - twice as broad as an average nose - and it was pock-marked with years of sun and dirt. Strangely, the nose sat fairly comfortably on his face which wasn't round or heavy at all.
Again, we found interesting plants. There are so many prickly plants in Greece but none of them say "don't touch!" like these ones.
Butterflies and bees swarmed around these flowering thistles.
We returned to Othos from above. It's a really beautiful village.
There was only one place to eat in Othos. Like the taverna in our village on Kasos, the old men sat on one side of the narrow road drinking coffee, and smoking, and the restaurant and kitchen were on the other side. It was only 11.30 but we were very tired and hungry and ready for lunch. We knew that was early by Greek standards so we asked if food was ready. "Of course!" came the answer. "Would you like breakfast?" Fortunately, some lunch meals were ready too and we had a lovely meal. To our surprise, we learned that the young guy who owned the restaurant had a Greenlandic girlfriend! She had been travelling in Greece and met him when he was a bartender in the main town. She was lovely and we reminisced about Greenland with her for a while.
As we walked back through the village, we found this gorgeous church. It had a functioning waterfall running alongside it and it was immaculately maintained.
The floors of both the exterior and interior of the church were decorated in the traditional style with pebbles. I've never seen this inside a building before. The pebbles aren't comfortable to walk on as they're cemented in sideways, but they look lovely.
Heading back to our car, we found a picturesque church perched on a hill.
A church with a view of a church with a view.......
In an attempt to not get so hot the next day, we worked out a walk that was mostly in pine forest. It wasn't that exciting but at least it was shady for most of the way.
The forest was fairly large. We could see that trees were growing on what had been terraces, so this must have been farmed at some stage. We don't know why it's been allowed to revert to forest but we're happy it has been!
Our new friends then took us to lunch at a restaurant on the very south-western tip of Karpathos. We had a lovely meal then we checked out the beach. The water was such a stunning colour. Apparently, it gets incredibly busy here in July and August. It's a fairly out of the way place, so it's surprising that it's so popular. We've learned though that Karpathos is more well-known that we first thought. With direct flights in from many European countries, it's easy to get to.
A hole in a rock in the foreground and Kasos in the background.
Our last walk was a quick one as we had to check out of our amazing apartment. We just picked a random dirt road behind Arkasa, parked the car and walked up the road. We found a surprisingly lush area with a gorgeous church in it which seemed far too elaborate for such a small local population. With more fertile soil here, maybe it used to be quite populated.
There are often random objects on the side of the road like this!
There were quite a few picturesque deserted old farmhouses.
Arkasa and the peninsula where the columns, castle and mosaic floors are.
We ate every night at Marina's restaurant and John had coffee there every morning. They have their own boat to catch fresh fish each day. Some of the family, including yaya (grandma) live next door and yaya makes the dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves) for the restaurant using a recipe from Kasos. They're wonderful!
This is the view from what was usually our table.
This friendly cat jumped up to help John read the wine label!
With Katrina, the gorgeous waitress, and Marina, the owner (and one of the cooks). I didn't realise how tiny they both are!
We packed and dragged ourselves away from Finiki. We'll definitely be back again one day! We headed north and saw this incredibly windswept tree in front of a freshly whitewashed church.
We checked out the beach village of Kato Lefkos. I had seen this from a higher road on previous drives and it looked amazing as it had three bays in one tiny area. Two of the bays were back to back, which is really unusual. One of the back beaches was superb - stunning clear water and barely a soul in sight.
Just 50 or 100 metres away was another beach with a very different feel - see below. We simply don't understand the European sunworshipper set. Why would anyone want to pay 15 or 20 euros to rent an umbrella and sunbeds crowded in with everyone else when the beach above is literally a one-minute walk away? Horses for courses, I suppose.
We drove along the spectacular road north to Olympos. We had done this drive before. The rugged land tumbled down to the sea.
We turned a corner and there was Olympos in all her glory. I had forgotten how spectacular the setting was.
Driving into our hotel proved to be a challenge. It was set a bit below the town and the road getting to it was incredibly rough! Our 4x 4 Panda only just made it.
The hotel sat starkly on its own. It wasn't our first choice but it was the best available to us.
The views from our balcony were amazing though!
The wind whipped up the hill, giving me flyaway hair.
Olympos wasn't opened up to the rest of the world until about 15 years ago when that rough road we drove up was made. Until then, they could only connect with the outside world via boat. As a result, the residents of Olympos maintained a lot of their traditions. With land nearby being very fertile, hundreds of people lived on this mountain for a long time, keeping their traditional ways.
Last time we were here, we met some really special locals. John had his list of names ready, and off we went to see them. The big one was Archontoula and her husband Philippas. A lot of locals wear their traditional clothes during the day for the tourists that now come here, but change into casual clothes at night. Not Archontoula. In her eighties, she has been wearing these clothes all her life. Archontoula and her husband, Philippas, have been running a traditional kafeneon for a very long time. Philippas' father started it in 1925. Yes, it's 101 years old.
We think it took the couple a while to remember us but they got there in the end. Archontoula is amazing. She's as sharp as a tack, has a wicked sense of humour and speaks no English. Her clothes are so interesting. There are many layers - under the dark skirt is a white petticoat and under that are a pair of white cotton pantaloons. Her white cotton shirt is hand-embroidered. Over the top of that is an embroidered black jacket which is quite coarse. Maybe it's homespun wool? Over the whole lot is an embroidered apron and on her head is a headscarf. She must get so hot. It was about 28 degrees when John took this photo.
Our legendary memory of Archontoula on our last trip was that she used to mimic my laugh, although it sounded more like a witch's cackle! One day on that trip we were walking through the old town and suddenly we heard Archintoula's imitation of my laugh. She had seen us coming, stuck her head around the corner of a building and gave us her best cackle rendition!
At the kafeneon, if you want an alcoholic drink, Archontoula digs up some mezze , small plates of food. No decent Greek person lets you drink without eating something. We had olives, pickled vegies, rusks, a few pieces of lettuce (!) and the most delicious nectarine I've ever had in my life.
Archontoula is always busy making strange plaited necklace things to sell to people. I don't like them but had to buy one! I'm wearing it in the photo above.
Each morning, John would have a coffee here. One morning we got given a horta (local spinach) pie plus a small roll with ham and cheese. The next morning we got chocolates.
We also caught up with Nikos and Maria who run the Parthenon restaurant. Nikos is a bit of a strange dude. He sometimes doesn't come across well to customers, but he means well and he's interesting. Maria is lovely.
Alexandrina was still running the tiny mini market. She remembered us straight away. When we asked how business was going, she said, "What do you think?" and gestured to the mostly empty shelves. It must be hard trying to make a living from a few packets of chips and a simple array of necessities like laundry powder and biscuits. Like others we've met, she feels that she has to do this for the village. We caught up with Alexandrina a couple of times for a chat. A chat involved pulling up a couple of chairs and sitting down inside the tiny, hot shop drinking drinks from her drinks fridge. We took up all the space.
We knew she had a Halki connection (the island we go to a lot and are going to again in a few days) and we learned that her great-grandmother was from Halki and her great-grandfather was from Olympos. When they got married and moved to Olympos, her great-grandmother had a really hard time because his family wouldn't accept her because she was a foreigner. She was from the next island! Women would pull their headscarves over their faces so they didn't have to look at her. Traditionally, the fathers would provide funding for the sons but the father refused to give them anything. It wasn't until the Halki-born wife gave birth to a son, and they named him after her father-in-law, that he forgave them. He then left all his worldly goods to his grandson, not his son!
Alexandrina's son is currently going out with an Australian girl. I wondered how much things have changed since her great-grandparents' times so I asked what would happen if he married her. She said she would support him. He should marry who he loves. However, she would rather he married a Greek girl. When I asked what other people in the village would think she said that they would quietly pull her aside and ask her to talk to him about it to try to make him change his mind!
Apparently, it's only ok to marry someone from Olympos or the two nearby villages, Diafani and Avlona. As Alexandrina pointed out, all these people are the same big family. She said there are quite a few people with signs of inbreeding.
Alexandrina in the main street outside her tiny shop.
Sadly, Maria, our best source of info, as she grew up in the US, was back in the US and Foula, her sister, was in Rhodes for a funeral.
Papa Yiannis, the priest, was still around though!
We decided we would walk to the summit of Profitis Ilias, the big mountain that the town sits on. I tried to walk this last time but I only got so far up before fog came in and I couldn't see the track so I had to turn back. This time, we set our alarms early and woke up only to find we were fogged in!
We made a quick plan B and decided to walk to Vrougounta instead, a wonderful walk I did by myself last trip. The walk started from Avlona, a farming area. There were quite a few donkeys here.
It's hard to see here, but three shields have been carved into the rock wall above the large steps. Maybe it's an alter of some kind?
We walked down, down, down on an old rock path.
A few goats checked us out.
At the bottom, on a peninsula, sat an amazing collection of ancient ruins. The Mycenaean city is now just a mass of crumbling walls but it must have been spectacular in its time. At the entrance sat a large rock with tombs carved inside it.
Walking in.
At the tip of the peninsula was an underground church. Last time I came here, I didn't know about this and didn't find it so I was determined to go there this time.
It was lovely and cool in the cave. A font carved into the shape of a cross was placed under a point where water drips from the limestone roof, so fresh, cool water was always there.
John stepped through the iconostasis, the screen separating the nave from the sanctuary in every Greek Orthodox church. With the light coming from the stairwell, it looked like he was having a religious experience!
Ancient steps led down to a small port. This town must have been well-off in its time. It had good access to both the sea and fertile land.
We had walked 1.5 hours downhill to get there. We now had to walk 1.5 hours back up. We started to climb and the fog lifted. It got very hot. Neither of us were feeling that great. I got particularly hot so I found a tiny patch of shade to rest for a minute and have a drink. The shade was so tiny that I had to lean back on a rock to get it. Not long after that, the misty clouds came in on and off so it wasn't so bad. About 20 minutes later, and maybe 100 vertical metres higher, we came across three cute donkeys. I went to take a photo, but my camera wasn't in my hand. I had left it in the tiny patch of shade! There was nothing for it but to go back down and get it.
Feeling hot and stupid. But at least my camera was still there.
Hot and hungry, we drove to the beach town of Diafani for lunch. We hadn't taken any swimming gear with us sadly.
On the way back, the mist rolled in around this church.
Wandering around Olympos as the sun was getting close to setting.
The next day we revisited Agios Minas, the beach that our friend, Jen Barclay, wrote a book about. We visited this place last time and not only met the owner of the taverna but Jen was there too. Sadly, we had learned that Minas' lease wasn't renewed and the taverna is now closed.
To get there, we had to tackle the amazing twisting dirt road that led down to the beach. It was just as hair-raising as before.
Before we got to Agios Minas beach, we parked the car and walked down to another beach. It was beautiful!
The pebbles and rocks that made up the 'beach' were marbled with quartz and were quite pretty.
We returned to Agios Minas beach. I had forgotten how wonderful it was. We had it all to ourselves (at times). The water was crystal clear. I loved it there!
We ate a delicious lunch at another taverna set back off the beach. While we were eating there was another earthquake! I then returned for another swim while John watched. He sat in the shade on an old broken bucket while my t-shirt flapped in the breeze on the branch of a tamarisk tree. You can't get much more perfect than this!
Or maybe you can. Me swimming. There was nobody else in the water.
The sad ruins of Minas' taverna. Many a great time was had here in its day.
Agios Minas beach from above. Sigh.....
The spectacular road wound through these rugged mountains.
We stayed in a spacious apartment but had trouble with the humidity. The fog rolled in every morning. Nothing would dry. The building smelled damp. It didn't help that there was no shower screen whatsoever in the otherwise lovely bathroom. No matter how hard we tried, water always ended up all over the floor.
There were dozens of old windmills in the village in various states of disrepair.
The next day we wanted to attempt going up Profitis Ilias, the mountain I couldn't get up last time as there was too much fog but, you guessed it, we woke up fogbound. We tried it anyway. When Nikos at the restaurant heard we were doing that in the fog, he was worried and raced after us to give us his phone number in case anything went wrong. The people are so wonderful.
We could see the track ok but there were no views whatsoever.
John in the mist.
At a pass, the wind whipped up the side of the mountain, which kept us cool at least.
The wind was so strong that we couldn't keep our hats on and my hair flew everywhere. I was a wet, tangled mess!
We opted not to do the extra leg to the summit as we wouldn't see anything.
We returned from our walk through the village. As soon as we entered we could see that Foula's shop was open - she was back from Rhodos! We chatted to her for a while, then dropped in to see Alexandrina. We wandered up to Nikos and Maria's Parthenon restaurant for their delicious meatballs. While we were there, Papa Yiannis came by. He had a chat to Archontoula, who turned up. Then the lady at another restaurant stopped us because she recognised us from last time. It was like being at a reunion!
We dropped into Milos restaurant where the wonderful third-generation Vasso served us a small meal then insisted on giving us yet another free serve of loukoumades the local doughnuts. When we said we really couldn't fit them in, she insisted, saying they'd just been cooked and they're always better when they've just been cooked. She was right.....
While we were eating we watched this sheep, or possibly goat, roam on the steep cliff nearby. It's the black speck.
Meanwhile, the grandmother at the restaurant set the sails on one of the only two working windmills left in the village.
I noticed that this woman's dress was a bit different to Archontoula's. It was similar but it was like she was missing the top heavy layer. I remember her wearing the same last time too.
In the afternoon, we returned to Foula's shop as she'd been busy when we saw her earlier. Foula, her mother, Sofia, and a friend were all sitting chatting. Two more chairs were found and we joined them. Soon, a box of local pies appeared. We all had a pie each. Then bottles of water appeared. Then, some ekmes, which turned out to be one of the most superb desserts I've tasted in Greece! There was a loaf of local bread sitting on a bench. The local bread is big, round and heavy. Soon, slices were being cut off, margarine was slathered on and they were handed around. And it wasn't even time for a meal! After a lovely catchup, we bought an 'eye' for our home (after having to force them to take payment for it) and finally left, but not before Foula grabbed a fridge magnet from a stand in her shop and gave it to us. Greek generosity is amazing!
As we sat chatting, an unusual wheelbarrow-like contraption with caterpillar-track wheels went noisily up and down the steps delivering things. One man's contraption was electric, so it wasn't too noisy, but the other one ran on fuel and it was awful. Foula hatred it. Imagine living in a village where no machine had ever driven through the narrow streets then suddenly a noisy machine starts running through multiple times a day.
All sorts of things could be transported this way - even a hot water service!
Even sadder than the invasion of the noisy machines was the fact that we saw no donkeys this time. It seems that the machines have replaced them.
Our last day dawned fog-free for the first time - and we didn't have time to climb the mountain! We just walked in the area near the town and had fantastic views over it. At one stage, John counted 16 churches in the view from where he was standing.
We found this renovated threshing circle.
As we walked back into the town, we had to say goodbye to everyone. Foula gave us some local bread to take to her sister in Halki. Store owners that we'd regularly seen but didn't really know, said goodbye to us.
Makarounes, local pasta, drying on a rooftop.
At Archontoula's cafe were a Greek couple who spoke fluent English. Somehow the guy decided to start drinking raki at 11am and gave one to John. Ugghh, we had things to do! Archontoula was still wearing her kangaroo pin that we gave her the day before. We said a sad goodbye. Archontoula will always remain a special person to me.
Then it was an early lunch with Nikos and Maria and another sad goodbye.
When we first arrived here this time, I had Finiki withdrawal symptoms. Finiki had been so comfortable and so easy. Things weren't so easy in Olympos. It took a couple of days - and a trip to Agios Minas beach!- before I felt settled here again.
We left Olympos and drove along the spectacular cliff-hugging road back to Pigadia. We returned our rental car and hunted down a restaurant that John remembered eating at on our last visit. The restaurant was slick and the waiters were real characters. After a month of nothing but Greek food, we lashed out and had steaks with peppercorn sauce. I'm not much of a steak eater but it was sensational!
Our ferry was supposed to leave in the mid-afternoon, but all the schedules got changed, We were now leaving at 9.30pm and arriving in Halki well after midnight. We comfortably finished the meal just as our ferry was due. We boarded and spent a fascinating half hour watching the comings and goings of the trucks. Semi-trailers drove off the ship, detached from their trailers and drove back onto the ship. Other trucks were ready to hitch the trailers up and continue the journey.
We had a wonderful time in Karpathos. It was fun and fascinating. We'll be back here again one day.
But now it's time to prep the livers and get our party pants on. Halki, here we come!
